BOMB DIPLOMACY: What do you do if...

BOMB DIPLOMACY: What do you do if someone calls to say there’s a bomb in your building? “It’s a strange feeling,” says Treasurer-Tax Collector John M.W. Moorlach, whose office received a bomb threat this week. “Do you evacuate? Do you look around?” . . . The Sheriff’s Department bomb squad held a class this week for secretaries, receptionists and other government workers who might be the first recipients of such calls. . . . First thing: Don’t panic, stay alert.

NOT FORGOTTEN: Taxman Moorlach has been promoting his office’s program to simplify property tax payments. You pay electronically, through arrangements at your bank. Payments are deducted from your bank account, or your paycheck, each quarter. And thousands are doing it. . . . But many prefer to pay the old-fashioned way--by mail. Some are really old-fashioned: They’re addressing their checks or envelopes to Robert Citron. . . . Note: He’s the treasurer who got indicted--and forced out because of the bankruptcy.

THROW STRIKES: Long before pitcher Bert Blyleven was a 20-game winner in the major leagues, his competitive passion was bowling. Blyleven, who’s now a youth director at the Crystal Cathedral, will prove he can still throw strikes today at Regal Lanes in Orange. He and a group of other former Angels--Gary Pettis and Lance Parrish among them--are scheduled to bowl for Angels Care, the team’s official charity, to raise funds for local children’s causes. Says Blyleven: “Sometimes its hard to hit those things when they’re sitting still.”

DOING DUTY: Don’t be alarmed if someone in uniform traipses through your front yard today. Nearly 30,000 local Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts and Explorers will blanket the county with plastic bags in their annual Scouting for Food Drive. Don’t put food in the bags right away--Scouts will collect Nov. 18. . . . Their goal: Half a million pounds of food, which will be sent by military truck to the Food Distribution Center.